<:NEXUS:> I claim for rebellion

Very good colour like if it’s good

<:NEXUS:>

Says the yapper

Best camouflage in game #invisible

Makes for good Camo, especially for PvP put this on and you’ll be practically invisible

Waning Unity

Chapter Twenty

'Stop it.’

Lume could hear him screaming as she thrashed him back and forth, pulling the blood in his veins from one side of his body to the other.

'Stop it.'

She could hear him breaking as she slammed him into the ground over and over again.

‘Stop it.’

She felt his throat working as he pleaded for his life over mouthfuls of blood.

It would have been simpler to say it wasn’t her fault. There were many creatures of legend with a sense of duality, a second mind controlling their body. For all anyone knew, she could easily have been one of them. For all they knew, Lume had retreated to some far away corner at the back of her mind, left to the devices of a mindless beast.

But Lume knew. This was her; she was that beast, and lying to herself would do no good. She had promised to help them, to save them like a fool. Maybe she had even cared about them. What good had it done now? She’d cared about Fraser at some point, right? Now here she was killing him, and as much as she subconsciously might have wished she could have, she didn’t care. She was hurting, hurting too much to care about anything else. Their essence was causing her pain … if she could only get rid of them all, it would finally stop.

“Lume. Please.”

So if it was Lume in control, what was that then, that voice repeating over and over: ‘Stop it.’

She tried to pull her jaw shut tighter, tight enough to simply break Fraser’s neck and silence him, silence the pain, but she found she couldn’t.

‘Stop it.’

‘I can’t. I want it to be over.’

‘You’ll kill him.’

‘I know.’

Maybe there was another part of her, not a separate mind altogether, but another Lume. That was the Lume Fraser was looking for, the one he could plead with and be heard, the Lume that tried to keep him out of harm’s way; the Lume that wanted to protect the only creature that had ever truly bothered to care about her. Maybe that was the other voice that had been in her head all along; a Lume that existed simply to keep things like this from happening.

‘You wouldn’t kill him.’

‘I would.’

‘You can’t.’

‘I must.’

Wolves were slamming into her left and right as they ran past her. She had long gotten past the point of recognizing anything else was there. It felt as if she was burning alive, and it only grew worse the further the battle went. Her entire body was

trembling now.

‘I just want it to stop.’

“I’m loyal to you.”

Her internal dialogue halted. What had he just said?

“You are my pack.”

Something in Lume broke. He was trying to stop her … no, he was trying to SAVE her; save her before she did something she would truly regret. The red of his essence seeped away, softening to a light blue once again. The scar of red that had started Lume’s torment became a striking blue, taking a portion of the pain away. She felt as if she could breathe again, if

only a little. Fraser didn’t break eye contact with her, and his eyes were soft and kind, already forgiving her. Then they rolled back and shut, pulling Lume back to the reality of what she was doing.

‘It’s time to stop.’

She released her grip on Fraser’s neck and he began coughing out heavy spurts of blood. Lume was still hurting, still

frenzied, but in the midst of her hysteria something remarkable happened, perhaps not so remarkable for anyone else but her, but remarkable nonetheless; Lume began to cry. It was just pooled in her eyes for a bit, then tears began to run down

her face in small threads, and then like rivers pouring down her face. She sank to the ground slowly, sobbing while fire ran through her veins.

‘It hurts.’

‘I know.’

‘Not the essence.’

‘I know.’

Lume tried to blink her tears away as she fought to regain control of her breath. Horror dawned on her at the helplessness of her position. She was stuck in a degree of pain that threatened to turn her feral at any second, and Fraser was lying broken

and bloodied beside her, now unconscious and teetering on the edge of death. Initiative drove her back to her feet and she lifted Fraser by his scruff, gently this time, before turning and dashing into the forest as far as her legs would carry her from

the sea of red behind her. She was aware of footsteps trailing behind her, but the scent belonged to the young she-wolf Fraser had acknowledged as one of his past pack mates.

Several times she wanted to stop, and then a strike of pain would inform her she wasn’t yet far enough, so she kept running. She ran until the agony became a numb stinging all over her body, and then she collapsed, still trembling. Milkweed wasn’t far behind, panting as she made her way into the small clearing Lume had found, careful to keep her distance from the monster that had torn half of each pack apart.

The ethereal wolf hung her head as she looked down at her friend’s bloodied body, and a new, vulnerable thought occurred to her. “Fraser,” she whispered to a wolf she wasn’t sure could hear her, “I … I don’t know what to do…”

(EMOTIONAL DAMAGE)

~CL1

Waning Unity

Chapter Eighteen

She could not see it, but she felt it. A clutch of wolves were following her to the river when a sudden stab of pain made her

heart throb. She stopped for a moment as she tried to keep herself from doubling over. The wolves behind her gave each

other looks of confusion before Mink pushed past them and pressed against her side to steady her. “Are you alright?” He

whispered. “What happened?”

“I … “ Lume tried to put into words what she had just experienced. “Truthfully, I do not know.”

Mink blinked at her a moment

and then gave a nod towards her. “Is this a sign we’re getting close?”

She wasn’t sure what he meant until she looked down to see a sharp streak of scarlet stretching from her right shoulder and

stopping just shy of her heart. She thought it might have been blood if the shivering of the wind through her fur hadn’t alerted

her that this was merely a change of color on her coat.

She had never seen this before, both colors resting on her fur at

once, and the searing pain emanating from the scar of red essence made her certain it was not good for her.

She looked up

suddenly, searching the group of wolves for the cause. It didn’t take her long to find a splotch of red in the sea of blue around

her.

“Fraser?”

The much less timid wolf raised his head towards her. She hadn’t seen him back there, but she had assumed he was lost in

the crowd. Apparently he had only just now arrived, his appearance marked by the shift of essence. “What?” He asked, likely

growing uncomfortable with the way Lume was gawking at him. She had never seen him with red essence, not even when

Harrier and Boa attacked. She couldn’t imagine what must have happened to result in this.

“You … you’re … ”

She stepped forward and the searing pain grew worse as the red stripe quickly grew along her fur,

reaching halfway down her leg and up her neck to the right side of her face. She yelped suddenly and hopped back from

Fraser, leaving the curious wolf just as surprised as she was. The wolves around them gave Lume a wider berth as Fraser

tried to approach her. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

Lume retreated one step for each step he advanced. “Stay back!” She

shouted to him, letting out a small sigh as the crimson retreated back to the small sliver in her fur and the pain subsided a

little.

“It’s okay, I just want to help,” Fraser assured her quietly, taking two more steps slowly towards her.

The patch of red grew back ferociously quick and climbed up the side of her face again. She could feel her mouth fill with

saliva as the tips of her fangs tore further from her gums in an painful, elongated state, along with her claws. A hideous

screeching noise accompanied a sudden light-headedness, and once she regained her focus, she found she was lower to

the ground with her ears flattened against her head. “I said stay BACK!” It came out, half snarl - half bark, and it was no

longer clear whether it was fear or anger taking the reins.

The wolves encircled around her dropped to defensive stances, their essence slowly ebbing into red as well, only making

the pain worse until everything in her vision was a shade of scarlet. “BACK!” She snarled, snapping at all of them as she

spun to face them.

The tense situation was thrown into utter chaos when barks and snarls drowned out the sounds of the forest. The group of

wolves all turned to see several canine bodies moving towards them through the trees; the enemy pack had arrived. She turned back to the pack she was supposedly meant to be defending, but everything was blurred and red. She couldn't see clearly and her head felt like it was being torn in two.

The

war was about to begin, and once the commotion began, friend and foe would all be the same to her. Lume remained self aware only long enough to realize things were about to get very, very bad.

~CL1

So sorry, I was certain that I’d posted this but apparently not. ):/

Waning Unity

Chapter Seventeen

“I leave you alone for a half hour and you start a WAR?”

Lume nodded as though this was an extremely natural scenario, making Fraser wonder if she had done something similar in the past. The two of them were out for a stroll, which had been up until this point peaceful, as they ventured through the pack’s forested home. Here the lushness of the overhead forest canopy hid the sun’s harsh rays, concealing the countless birds that sang in joyous harmony. “I can’t trust you with anything,” he muttered as they continued on, following a narrow deer trail that led through the shrubbery.

The ethereal wolf, her fur still glowing a dusty blue, paused to turn and look down at him. “They believe I am a savior of sorts, Fraser,” she told him with what looked like surprised optimism. “I would like to live up to their expectations of me.”

Fraser sighed, letting out a wispy breath through his nostrils. “And their expectations of you are that you’ll fight wars for them?” he muttered, looking away as he sat down hard into the dirt, stirring it beneath him. Lume sat down parallel to him, ducking her head in an attempt to make eye contact, which the little desert wolf fiercely avoided.

“Fraser,” said the large wolf gently, her tone caring. “They are fighting against starvation. I cannot stand by and let them suffer. You out of everyone else should understand the gravity of this pain.” She lowered her head, swiveling herself as he evaded meeting her eyes. “And besides, I think that I can help.”

“You THINK?” Fraser cried, backpedaling a few steps and turning away from her, his head low as he shut his eyes. A million things were racing through his head, thoughts and opinions and decisions and choices running tracks in his mind. He sucked in a breath, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment before turning around to face her again. “It isn’t my decision to make,” he uttered finally. “Just… whatever you decide, don’t leave me.”

As sunshine gave way to dark, the sky flaunting brilliant colors of fiery orange and vibrant shades of purple and red, Fraser lay underneath a burly oak tree just within the camp’s boundaries. As he sat, head down in the dirt and eyes closed, he listened to the rustling of leaves in the wind. He wasn’t yet used to the forest, the dancing shadows that dappled the ground or the way that sunshine was hidden away from view nearly all the time. The way that squirrels and other animals dashed through the underbrush startled him. This place was nothing like the desert which he called home.

“How are you feeling?” a voice asked. Fraser’s eyes flicked open and he lifted his head. Milkweed, one of the three wolves from his old pack, was standing in front of him, a smile tracing her face as she awaited his response.

Fraser hesitated a moment before responding. “Fine,” he sighed, turning his head away from her in hopes of avoiding a conversation.

Suspicions arising, Milkweed moved to sit beside him. “Are you sure?” she asked softly, doubt radiating in her expression. “You know, it’s alright if you’re not fine.”

A sudden anger flared up in Fraser’s chest. “Stop being nice to me,” he snapped, pushing himself up to his feet and fixing her with a glare. She looked taken aback at his sudden outlash, though he didn’t give her a chance to speak. “Stop acting like we’re friends, like we’re family.”

A look of bewilderment cascaded over her face. “But Fraser, we are fam-”

The smaller desert wolf cut her off with a growl. “Don’t finish that sentence,” he snarled, ears pinning back against his head. “We are not family. Not anymore.” He turned away from her and began to pad off, pausing to shoot over his shoulder, “If we were really family you wouldn’t have left me.”

- President Loki

(Sorry this chapter took me a few days!)

Waning Unity

Chapter Thirteen

Lume let out a fearsome snarl that made Fraser's fur crawl. He backed away, tail snatched between his hind legs and his body low to the ground, as chaos erupted in front of him. Lume smacked the cougar away in time for Wildflower to land a bite to it’s neck. It recoiled with sharp claws and temporarily blinded her, thanks to claws over the bridge of her snout. The ethereal wolf, glowing a soft blue, pounced on the big cat and tussled across the ground locked in harsh combat. He had to do something.

But what was he supposed to do?

Use your brain, he told himself. That’s what you’re best at.

Forcing himself out of his fearful paralysis, he looked around, tuning out the violent barks and yowls of fighting in front of him to think. He slowed his breath until it was rhythmic, running through the library of ideas in his brain and sorting through what could be used and what couldn’t. The cougar was powerful and dangerous. Fraser was not.

His eyes landed on something. A stick.

Fraser quickly dashed through the underbrush and pounced on the stick, sinking his teeth into the damp bark and heaving it up. His neck strained at the weight of the fat branch but he ignored it, dragging it back towards his companions. He heard a crunch and froze, stiffening as fear crawled through his spine, rolling his eyes around to see that the cougar was stalking towards him now, teeth curled up to reveal frightening fangs. Lume was distracted by something behind the big cat, bent down towards the ground. She wouldn’t be able to help him.

I don’t need help, he told himself sharply, tensing his jaw around the large stick in his mouth. I’m perfectly capable of defending myself. I won’t run. Not this time.

The cougar let out a frightening yowl, pouncing closer with jagged claws reaching out to attack him. Tensing all of his muscles, Fraser swung his head around, gravity whipping the stick around after him, lifting it up and building momentum due to his speed of motion.

The stick connected itself with the cougar’s neck and sent it tumbling back. Right as he felt the jarring of the strike he opened his jaw, pulling himself away from the stick and letting it thrust the cat backwards. As it let out a pain-filled cry, temporarily stunned by the strike of the stick, Fraser jumped forward, now carrying the offense on their attacker.

I won’t run.

Using his hind legs he pinned the feline to the ground, and scraping his claws through the soil underpaw, he flung dirt into the cougar’s eyes, temporarily blinding it. It let out a furious snarl, using its claws- which Fraser had forgotten it had- to score marks down his haunches. Blistering pain was joined to his muscles within moments and he yelped, hopping backwards and dodging into the bushes. The cougar staggered to its feet and shook off, whipping around to attack him again.

Not this time.

Lunging forward, Fraser let out a harsh bark, baring his teeth with a throaty snarl. As he did so Lume appeared, and her mere hulking presence finally convinced the cougar to turn tail and flee into the woods. Fraser panted, staring after it, regaining himself before turning back to Lume. She had claw marks along both of her sides and shoulders, and the side of her face was bleeding as well.

“Are you alright?” he asked, analyzing the depth of her cuts and deciding whether or not they were fatal. It didn’t appear so, but infection could prove that thought wrong if they weren’t careful.

“I am safe,” she told him. “Wildflower is not.”

Fraser’s heart sped down into his stomach and dropped like a heavy weight. His wall of hope crumbled around him as he dashed numbly past the white wolf, crossing to where Wildflower lay in a heap of reddened fur.

It didn’t have to be spoken. Wildflower was dead.

- President Loki

Waning Unity

Chapter Two

She didn't know how long she had been trudging through plains and forest and rock terrain, but Lume knew she had been walking endlessly. She looked around at the trees and the water and the sky above. It was all so ... bland. She had heard other wolves describe the "greens" and "yellows" and "oranges" of the tree leaves as the seasons passed; the "purples" of a deep night sky. For her there had never been much beauty in nature. She quite literally saw the world in black and white. Everything was some varying shade of grey, all equally as unstimulating as one landscape.

Long ago, older, wiser wolves had thought something was wrong with ancient wolf's eyes, but it quickly became clear to them that Lume could see things they couldn't. For instance, the small pools of white leading like a trail of pawprints further into the desert. Thin whisps of white, smoke-like dust lifted from the essence prints further from the ground, curling away as she stepped past them. She didn't have to walk far to find where they led.

A young, chalk-brown wolf lay curled under a gnarled, dead tree ahead, muttering something under his breath. She hadn't gotten within seven pawsteps of him before his head shot into an upright position and he turned his head to face her. "Stop! Stay where you are!" he shouted, standing quickly. Lume noted the hind paw he was clutching close to his body, wincing everytime he put pressure on it.

"It's rare I find one with a completely neutral essence, neither this way or that, other than mine," she said, sitting just in front of the rock the defensive wolf was perched on. "You must be quite conflicted to manage that."

He stared at her for a long moment, sizing her up with the look of a predator determining if an intruder was a threat or simply a passerby. "You're in my pack's home," he said, holding his head high in an attempt at an authourity Lume had no concern for. "This is our territory ... you must leave."

Lume looked around the desolate ground around them. Other than the crickets and lizards lurking under dust-colored rocks and dead bushes, there wasn't any other creature in their company, though she could see the evidence that this had once been the heart of a great gathering of wolves.

"They no longer remain here," Lume said, more of a statement than a question. The tan wolf's authority faltered. "They ... they'll be back!" he said with finality. Lume stared at him without saying a word. "They'll be back," he repeated, much quieter this time. "We'll all be together again."

Lume stood suddenly, content with a slightly fuller understanding of the situation. She turned, following one of the many faded-blue essence trails as it broke away from the others, growing a red tint as it split further from the heart.

"Where are you going? Their scents have long gone cold, it'll be impossibpe to track them through time and weather!" the tan wolf called after her.

"Scent fades quickly, essence doesn't," she called back over her shoulder, still following the reddening trail faithfully. The follow up questions from the tan wolf began to fade behind her slowly, but she disregarded them for now. Either he would follow, or he wouldn't; that was his path to decide.

For her, the decision had already been made as she found a new direction to wander.

Waning Unity

A new collab by President Loki and CL1

Fraser’s Prologue

This wasn’t happening.

This couldn’t be happening.

But it was.

Fraser stood in the center of the clearing- HIS clearing- as his pack all around him dispersed in different directions. Groups of two and three vanished over the horizon. Lone wolves flashed away from view.

In all but a moment Fraser was the only one left.

Dust swirled up around his chalk-tan paws, the hot desert wind causing his washed out brown fur to rustle every which way. The sun was sinking low towards the horizon, silhouetting the rocky outcroppings that littered the desert around him in shadows, casting streaks of crimson and auburn throughout the cloudless expanse overhead. He turned his head, looking around with hurting in his heart at what had once been a bustling home for a wolf pack. Now it was empty, the rocks which surrounded the sandy bowl of safety looking miles away now that his pack mates were gone.

If there was a chance that nightmares could become real, it was happening now.

Slowly turning, Fraser walked with his head down over to the brittle, twisted tree that grew out of a small rocky cliff, hanging over the camp. Hopping up the red-brown rock underfoot he settled beneath the trunk, harsh bark raking through his fur. He crossed one paw over the other and laid his chin on his foreleg, breathing out a lonely and desolate sigh through his nostrils. His pack would be back, he was sure. This was his pack’s home- he had lived the first year and a half of his life in this desert, running through the sand dunes beside his family. There was no way that they would leave now, when food grew sparse. The famine of prey would end, and then when it did, they would be back to greet him and thank him for protecting their home.

He would wait, Fraser decided. He would stay there, living in his now-huge camp, until his pack returned to him. And then he would welcome them with open arms. And then they would gallop through the desert once more, following all of their old rocky trails and hunting all of the prey that they could fit in their bellies. Until then, he would survive any way that he could, by any and all means. He would use his smarts to guide him. He would pray to the ancestors that his family would return soon, that the prey in the desert around them would return so that they could once more rule their territory as one.

So he would wait.

- President Loki

Hi President Loki! Are u going to continue writing?

Waning Unity

Fraser’s Epilogue

What exactly was love?

For a long time Fraser wouldn’t have been able to answer that question. A powerful bond? Sure, you could say that. An emotion that fits right alongside joy and anger? Maybe that, too.

But he had come to learn that love was something that truly couldn’t be described. It was something to be experienced, to understand by living in the moment and learn by walking alongside another. Another who you loved, who you cherished, who made the world go round because they were all that mattered.

Contrary to what he would have thought for his life, Fraser finally had that someone.

He and Lume never stayed in one place. They didn’t have to. They traveled where they pleased and saw what they wished to see; forests of glorious trees that were high as the sky itself, wide-open plains filled to the brim with flowers painted colors as bright as the sunset. Brilliant sights of cascading oceans and peaceful valleys and bare mountaintops that made for the best sights of the sky and stars at night. But nothing, no matter how many places they went, was more brilliant to see than the white face that accompanied Fraser every step of the way.

And every day, no matter where they would run to and explore, they would share an intimacy so precious that Fraser had trouble keeping a smile from his face. He would say her name and she would say his, and they didn’t have to speak verbal words to understand each other completely. They would walk side-by-side across the banks of babbling brooks and listen to the birdsong high in overhead trees. They would look at each other and, for such a small moment, the world would fall still all around them as their eyes met and their heartbeats joined together into one sound, into one rhythm. And if there was such thing as a perfect moment, that would be it.

Because that moment? That moment was everything.

It was the kind of moment that gave the sun motivation to rise, the kind of moment that encouraged the birds to sing and the breeze to whistle and the rivers to rush. It was the kind of moment that made the stars bright and worth looking at, the kind of moment that made all other moments weak by comparison.

And it was their moment to share forever.

So Fraser no longer had to wonder what love was or how to describe it. It was a question that could remain safely unanswered, a question for others to wonder as they sought out a reason for their lives. But Fraser didn’t have to wonder anymore, and no longer did he have to spend nights alone in his old pack’s abandoned home praying for his company to return so he would no longer feel so abandoned.

No longer did he have to wonder because his prayer had been answered, and Lume had found him, and his world had flipped upside-down but in all of the right ways.

Now he wasn’t alone. He had a friend. He had a pack.

He had Lume. And that was all he needed.

(This didn’t take me nearly as long to write as I thought it would and I also adore this chapter/epilogue with a burning passion)

- President Loki :)

Waning Unity

Chapter Twenty-seven

On trembling paws, Fraser slowly began to back away from Lume. The she-wolf loomed over him with open and slavering jaws, poised to strike like a venomous rattlesnake. The flight instinct that guided Fraser’s every move was swelling up inside of him again, and his instinctual reaction to the situation was to run. Run far away, run in any direction that he could to get away from her. Get away from the danger.

But Lume wasn’t a danger. For the first time in his miserable life, his paws hardened like stones and kept him from fleeing. His mind was directing him to turn tail, demanding for him to leave the moon wolf for good and save himself from inevitable pain. Only this time, Fraser’s mind and heart refused to align. His desperate effort to stay alive, to maintain his pack’s home until they returned, was gone now that he knew they weren’t coming back. His fight or flight instinct was, for the first time, conflicted.

He wasn’t going to run from Lume. Not this time.

“Fraser,” a voice that he had learned to belong to Milkweed called out from somewhere behind him. He kept his dark eyes trained on Lume’s contorted and snarling face, staring intently into the white and angry voids that she held for eyes. The ethereal wolf had taken her focus off of him and now looked up at the ridge behind him, the place from which Milkweed’s as well as others’ scents rode in on the breeze. He didn’t hear their footsteps approach, and among the smells of the desert he could taste their faint fear.

Lume let out a rumbling growl, her eyes narrowing dangerously the longer she looked back to where the others would have been. Fraser swished his tail, recapturing her attention as he lifted his chin toward her. He worked to steady his own breathing, holding her piercing gaze as he tucked his fear away into a far corner of his mind. He wasn’t afraid of her, he told himself. He knew her, he told himself. She knew him, he told himself. “Lume,” he uttered finally.

The she-wolf’s attention lasered in on Fraser as he spoke, snarl growing louder as it throbbed within her throat, contorted claws digging into the dirt underfoot. “Fra-a-aser,” her unstable voice growled, tone pinched. Behind the sweltering rage that burned like starlight in her eyes, he could see an underlying trace of utmost fear. The real Lume, the one that made Fraser laugh and that pulled him from danger at any given moment, was still there. She was a prisoner in her own body, but despite her possessor’s deadly hold, she was still there. And she was desperate to protect Fraser.

But today it wasn’t Fraser who needed protecting. It was Lume.

With a long breath, Fraser lowered his haunches down into the sand and sat. He held the she-wolf’s burning gaze, kept still when her snarling thickened. This dark side of Lume, the one that was holding her prisoner inside herself, wanted a challenge. It wanted to chase him through the sands as he fled for his life. It wanted to beat him in a fight that he would never be able to win. It wanted to rip him apart, slowly, effortlessly, all while he was pleading to escape. But Fraser wasn’t a fighter and he never had been; at least now with physical strength and the use of teeth and claws. He was a fighter of words, of wit, of wisdom.

“I’m not leaving,” Fraser uttered defiantly, refusing to let himself flinch when Lume let loose a throaty growl, her slavering jaws dripping with saliva that dripped down onto his snout as she loomed over him. “I’m not leaving you. Not again.”

The ethereal wolf let out a guttural growl, eyes narrowing tensely as she stared at him with blazing eyes. “I’m staying here,” Fraser said with certainty as he faced down the large wolf, shoulders tense and chin lifted. “Just me and you. I’m staying here with you, Lume. Even if you kill me.”

- President Loki

(This feels like an appropriate “I’m with you ‘till the end of the line” moment)

(Yes, your spacing is fixed! *claps*)

Waning Unity

Chapter Twenty-three

All of Fraser’s motivation, his high spirits, his cheerful demeanor, and his happiness were gone.

One small sentence- the moment of Milkweed telling him “Lume is gone”- had broken him.

He didn’t know why. Every wolf he knew had left him at one point or another. It was a mystery to him why her departure hurt so badly, yet here he was, grieving for a wolf who wasn’t even dead. Mourning the loss that stabbed into his heart far greater than any pain he had endured.

Days passed and his injury continued healing. He was awake every day, sometimes slipping into unconsciousness but for the most part managing to keep himself composed. Every day when Milkweed returned with food or medicines to ease the pain, she would as the same thing: “Will you please consider staying with us? Or at least come to the camp to rest?”

Fraser’s reply was always “No.”

Finally, after what felt like a painstakingly long time of healing and pain, Fraser was able to function normally again, with only dried scabs and what would be permanent scars to show for what had happened. What had been a punctured throat functioned as was natural. What had been a pair of cracked ribs were mended together again.

But his heart that had shattered? Oh, those pieces were still crumbled into dust.

Milkweed, Mushroom, and Fawn watched with sorrowful eyes as he departed, head hung low, tail stilled by the weight of his grief. The three of them had finally given up trying to convince him to stay, but still, their amber-colored eyes watched him go with longing. But they weren’t his pack any longer, not since they made the choice to leave him behind. They didn’t deserve his loyalty.

And so he was alone again.

With nowhere left to turn, he began the trek back to the desert and what once had been his home. He made his way around the clearing where Wildflower was buried and carefully avoided the sandy bowl which had been Boa and Harrier’s home. As he trekked, agonizing sadness worse than any injury that had possibly been inflicted ravaged him. Every day he caught the phantom presence of a peaceful white wolf in his peripheral, but by the time he arrived back in the desert, he learned it was pointless to turn and search for Lume’s face, as it was just a production of his imagination.

The emptiness of his former pack’s abandoned camp reflected the hollow feeling of his own body, and despite it being empty, his heart lay heavier than any boulder. Slowly, with heavy footsteps, he crossed over the sunbaked sand and sat below his ragged tree, his head bowed, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. He laid down, tucking his snout underneath one paw and closing his eyes as grief continued to ravage his body and make everything feel numb.

“You’re not really there, are you?” Fraser asked the clear night sky frosted with whirls of purple and green, pristine white stars dappling the desolate abyss that was high overhead. “You’re not real.”

No response.

So yes, he was right, then. The ancestors weren’t real.

With heavy paws he continued on his way, trekking through the rocky desert with no clear destination other than to avoid killing himself and get away, if only temporarily, from the heartache that his old camp gave him. “If you were really there, you would talk to me,” he dared to venture, looking again up at the night sky as he walked. “If you were really there, you wouldn’t let me suffer.”

Lukewarm water sloshed over his feet and he stopped, looking down at the small river that wound its way through the desert sands, dipping in and out of the rocky alcoves which surrounded him. His gaze transfixed on his own face reflected in the water’s smooth surface as it glided over his claws on a journey unbroken by time or trials. His eyes tracked from his face to his neck and the scars that marked his skin, unveiled by fur that had yet to return.

Slowly, while sucking in a deep breath, Fraser sank back onto his haunches, closing his eyes as he began to tremble a bit. Lume’s white, welcoming face flared into view within his closed eyelids and he swallowed back the saddened feeling that spiked in his heart.

“If you’re there, tell me this,” he whispered finally, lifting his eyes to the frosted sky which loomed high over his head. “Tell me if what I feel is more than a faze.” White light winked down at him in silent response and he breathed in deeply, lowering his head to his reflection again, meeting his own deep brown eyes. “If she really is the monster that she makes herself out to be… why am I not afraid of her?”

YAYYYY THIS IS SO FUN

- President Loki

Waning Unity

Chapter Nineteen

Mere moments before, Lume had been blue. Her fur had been glowing gently, expression at peace, leading the pack to this fight with no hesitation nor resentment. Her posture had been confident and she had been ready to assist the pack in any way necessary to help them retake their home.

In the blink of an eye all of that fell away. The vein of red had burst into life and she had called his name. Fraser had watched her expression of confusion crumble into one of fear… and now rage.

“Don’t move,” Mink’s wary voice passed through the pack as they stiffened. Lume was shaking her head, pacing, snarling, all the while the enemy pack was watching from the shadows, dark eyes confused as to what the ethereal wolf was doing. “Don’t speak,” the alpha added. “Stay still.”

Fur rustled directly to Fraser’s left and, turning his head ever so slightly, he saw that Milkweed was slowly sliding up to stand next to him. The little wolf had to bite back a growl of frustration, but despite his best efforts to suppress the anger, Lume let out a cry as the band of red stretching across her body- the stripe that had caused her to grow fearful of herself- flared brighter than the rest of the scarlet of her fur.

The pain became too much to bear, and whipping around, Lume lunged at the first wolf she saw: one of the enemy wolves who were closing in.

Chaos erupted all around them, barks and snarls and howls. Teeth found their way into Fraser’s scruff and he jerked around, twisting to free himself from the grasp of the ash-gray wolf who had seized him. He quickly ducked to the right, tripping over flailing limbs of wolves as they clashed, blood raining down onto his fur like sand carried in a dust storm.

Claws speared into his flesh as wolves lunged at him, teeth snapping and howls ringing through the trees. He stumbled, paw snagging on a jutting root, causing him to trip and tumble momentarily into the underbrush. He scrambled to his feet, looking around frantically in search of something he could use to his advantage. Unfortunately, in the heat of battle, everything was moving too quickly to take a moment and find a weapon.

Through the throng of powerful, rippling bodies of wolves, Lume was visible. Her striking red fur blazed like a fallen star as she smashed through the crowd, teeth stabbing into any wolves who came within her reach. Fraser watched as she plowed teeth-first between wolves, eyes alight with fury. A stab of pain zipped through his heart as she let out a cry of pain, and he had to squeeze his eyes shut to reduce the agony.

One of the enemy wolves spotted him and made a lunge. He scrambled away, ducking beneath the towering bodies of wolves and weaving between their legs. Suddenly immense pain drilled into the back of his neck and he felt his paws leave the ground. He let out a yelp, thrashing fearfully, the burning color of Lume’s fur catching in his peripheral. His heart twisted and he choked out a wobbly “Lume-!” right before she began whipping her head side to side. His body flailed limply in her jaws, weak like a paralyzed squirrel. The wind left his lungs and dizziness incapacitated him, blurring his vision. Her movements paused but only for a moment before she reared up and slammed him ribs-first into the ground, grip tightening on his neck. Through her relentless rage, he could feel something greater, more stabbing, more heavy; she was burdened with agony. The red of her fur was hurting her.

His thought process of calculating her pain and rage was cut short as her teeth clenched tighter, cutting off his access to oxygen. The gasps and gags that wobbled out of Fraser’s throat gave no assistance to achieving a flow of air. Lume’s iron jaw pressed down into his neck, teeth drilling through his fur and skin and welling up little streams of blood from his veins. Tears broke out from his ducts as pain engulfed him.

The world was growing dark, light slowly dying from the little desert wolf’s vision, as the craze of Lume’s rage overwhelmed him. And the only thing that was clear, and crisp, and strictly identifiable was the ethereal wolf’s pain.

“Lume,” he choked out, desperately gasping for breath as her dark eyes burned with fury. “Lume. Please.”

His muscles were falling limper by the moment, his surroundings growing fuzzy. The only thing that he could still see was the burning glow of Lume’s red fur. “It doesn’t matter if they aren’t loyal to you,” he gagged out, voice gargling slightly as blood filled the back of his mouth. “I’m loyal to you.”

Fraser sucked in a stabbing breath. “You are my pack,” he whispered. The dark pressed in, overwhelming him, dragging him away into unconsciousness as a spear of vibrant blue light flared up above him.

- President Loki :)

I’M SO SORRY THAT THIS TOOK SO LONG. STUFF IS BUSY AND I HAD NO INSPIRATION-

Anyway, here it is

Waning Unity

Chapter Fifteen

“Lume?” Fraser whispered loudly, crouched as close to the large wolf as he would dare get. The darkness of the night sky was just beginning to fold over into pale stripes of salmon pink and golden glow, the horizon stretching warm stripes of light into the sky and hiding the stars. “Lume?” he repeated, a little louder now. Finally her eye cracked open and she inhaled deeply, looking over at him drowsily. “What is it?” she asked after a moment. “Why aren’t you asleep?”

He shuffled a little closer to her, breathing his nervous air into her face. “I heard wolves howling,” he whispered, his eyes wide and round. “And they sounded close.”

Extending a paw, Lume pushed him a couple of paw-lengths away, sighing as she grew more alert to things around her. “Wolves howl often, Fraser,” she said tiredly, flicking her ears as she glared plainly at the smaller wolf. He shuffled his feet, beginning to chew the inside of his lip, per usual.

“Stop doing that,” she said, pushing herself to his feet and padding over. “It hurts you.” She swished her tail against his snout and he sighed, pulling his teeth away from the inside of his mouth before hanging his head miserably. “Sorry,” he mumbled under his breath, spitting out traces of blood that leaked into his saliva from his teeth marks that marked the softness of his mouth.

She sighed, shaking her head. She dipped her head until her snout was level with his, meeting his eyes. Her eyes looked truly concerned, rich with worry for his well-being. It was the most emotion he had ever seen in her face. “Do not apologize,” she told him gently. “It isn’t your fault.” She straightened, looking around. “What were you saying about howls?”

Suddenly her white fur seemed to ripple, the ethereal silver glow giving way to a vibrant blue. Fraser closed his eyes briefly, adjusting to the sudden amount of light. Footsteps rustled in the forest surrounding them, and suddenly the scent of woodland wolves whisked into his nostrils. He shuffled, stepping closer to Lume until their pelts brushed.

“A wolf pack?” he whispered to her, and she nodded in agreement. “Very loyal to each other,” she responded in a low voice. “Do you know them?”

Fraser scanned the forest, making out the shadows of wolves that surrounded them. He could hear their soft growls now, and they were near enough that he was able to sort through their smells. He inhaled deeply, struggling to figure out of any of them held scents that he could recognize. Some of their pelts, through the trees, were clearly lighter than their pack mates- evidence of sunbaked fur.

“I know one of them,” he mumbled finally. “No- two. Two of them are familiar, but they’re… they’re muddled. Changed from the time in the woods, I think.” Lume nodded quietly along with his words, crouching lower and turning her head to look out at the surrounding trees and the wolves hidden behind them.

A small portion of wolves stepped out, their three brown bodies silhouetted by the gathering light. There was a possibility that one of them, a she-wolf of a lighter color, was one of the members of his former pack. Their eyes were shadowed and dark, bodies tense. Fraser suddenly realized that they had probably found them by tracking Wildflower’s scent, and regrettably he turned his head to look over at her still body, already beginning to grow rancid from decay. “Is there a reason you have come into our territory,” one of the wolves, the darkest of the three, asked, “or are you simply passing by?”

Fraser and Lume exchanged a glance. His throat felt tight, as if he couldn’t speak, handicapped by nervousness. Lume looked back to the wolf who had spoken. “We are travelers,” she stated. “We do not mean any harm.”

“And who might you be?” asked the lightest. Her voice was familiar, soft, and despite her suspicious tone Fraser felt comfort simply by her presence. He looked back to Lume for a moment, hesitantly swallowing. “Lume and Fraser,” the ethereal wolf responded, lifting her chin. The lightest wolf’s face changed hearing their names and her ears lifted, eyes rounding.

“Fraser?” she repeated curiously, turning to whisper something to her companions. The darkest one finally looked to them and commanded, “Come with us. You’ll stay the night.”

- President Loki

Incorrect. The spacing looks fine for me on other things. I think your eyes are just lying to you.

And no worries! We want a good story, not a rushed one. My mind is always in writing mode, so its easy for me to pull a plot point quick hehe.

~CL1

Waning Unity

Chapter Fourteen

(On time like it's SUPPOSED to be ... okay lemme stop throwing shade lol.)

The blue essence that had filled Wildflower began to unravel, branching off as wisps circled her body. Lume tilted her head

back and allowed a long, low howl. There weren’t many pack traditions she participated in, but howling at the passing of a

wolf had always been something she’d done, for reasons unlike those of common wolves.

Death provided a different spectacle for her than it did others. To a pack, the group howling in the presence of death might

have been a mournful goodbye, but in her eyes, howling had always been the wings needed to carry essence from the living

world into the Forever Grounds. Even howling just now and Fraser’s voice joining in, the strands of blue essence clinging to

Wildflower’s body snapped their tethers and climbed into the sky on the winds.

Her wisp of blue joined the aurora of varying shades of blue pulsating in the night sky, a gathering of wolves in the Forever

Grounds as they gathered to welcome Wildflower to their number.

It seemed fitting that something so sad should have a beauty to accompany it. It was a shame wolves like Fraser could not

see as she saw.

With the last fragment of Wildflower gone, her body faded into a hazy gray indistinguishable from the soil and vegetation

around her. Lume’s coat lightened back to pure white without an essence to affect her anymore, and she could feel herself

grow smaller as her heavy, imposing nature faded away to the empty shell she had been before.

————————————

“So you do sleep?”

Lume cracked open her eyes and lifted her gaze to see Fraser hovering over her. His usual cheeriness still hadn’t returned,

but the silence had likely been harsher on him, Wildflower’s absence being glaringly evident now. “I need to heal,” she

murmured, turning her head to look at the gashes in her side. Then she looked at the matching claw-marks that trailed down

Fraser’s haunches. “And so do you.”

Fraser didn’t protest, simply padded a bit further away and plopped down, gnawing on something Lume couldn’t make out in

the dark. “Do you eat?” he asked with the tilt of his head. Lume stared at him a moment, then let her gaze travel to

Wildflower’s body, tufts of ripped flesh and fur slicked with blood outlined by the moonlight. For whatever reason, neither had

buried her yet. “Under the proper circumstances, I eat anything.”

She looked back at Fraser after a moment to see his face contorted with disgust as he immediately understood what she

was insinuating. She laid her head back down. “These are not the proper circumstances,” she assured him quietly. He

averted his gaze and then looked down at the object he had been gnawing. “These bulbs are pretty good. They come from

the roots of those golden flowers over there.” He tossed his nose in the direction of a diverse patch of gray flowers nearby.

She started to explain her ‘colorblindness,’ but decided she wasn’t in the mood for a thousand questions right now. “Thank

you,” she said quietly, shutting her eyes again.

“Lume?” Fraser called again, breaking the silence once more. She opened her eyes in a silent answer. “Thank you … for all

your help and everything, but … well, I don’t think I was meant to bring my pack back together. No matter what I try, it seems

like things aren’t going well.”

“You’ve only had two encounters,” she pointed out.

“I know, but …”

“If you wanted to quit, you would have just let that mountain lion kill you. You didn’t. You beat it with a stick. A stick, Fraser.”

There was quiet. “That was before Wildflower was …” he trailed off.

“Sleep, Fraser,” Lume said, more of a command than a suggestion. “In the morning, I’ll find a new trail, and you can decide

whether or not you’ll come with me.”

Fraser started to speak again, but Lume shushed him with a look before shutting her eyes.

~CL1 (Sorry, was too lazy to fix all the weird spacing on this one.)

Waning Unity

Chapter Twelve

Lume pushed her way through the tightly knit forest, ignoring the brambles and twigs that tried to lodge themselves in her fur. Fraser seemed to be in lighter spirits with a pack-mate that seemed open to the idea of reforming their pack.

They both trailed behind her now, talking about the past, about the days when they were all unified, about why each left and where they were now. At least, that’s what Lume assumed they were talking about. She couldn’t hear them from the distance and low tones they talked in.

Lume had to admit to herself she was grateful for Wildflower’s presence. It gave Fraser someone else to pester. She didn’t mind the inquisitive tan wolf, but his questions had become nearly endless, even with the caution he held with her. Besides,the newfound quiet would give her some time to think.

Think about what? That she didn’t know.

Perhaps what she should do in the case of another encounter with one of Fraser’s pack who wasn’t so happy to see him. It might be best if she left it to the other two and simply stood at a distance. Fraser seemed to be extremely attached to these wolves, no matter their opinions of him; it would be cruel to antagonize them intentionally. Maybe Wildflower would have a better reputation with her old pack mates. Maybe she could even convince Harrier and Boa … if they were still alive.

“And where did you find her?” Wildflower’s voice traveled past Lume’s ears with the breeze. There was a moment of quiet, and Lume could tell Fraser was making one of his tell-tale signs of nervousness, as if saying the wrong thing would cause Lume to turn on him, even if there was a chance she couldn’t hear.

“She found me …” he murmured, followed by some other words Lume couldn’t hear. She sometimes wondered what wolves thought of her, but then she realized it wouldn’t change anything. They would still have their opinions of her, and she would have her own opinions of them. Fraser was maybe a little insufferable, but his heart seemed to be in a good place and he had a high determination about him. Wildflower seemed genuine, sincere and kind. It would be good for Fraser to have some positive reinforcement.

She dropped her sudden curiosity as a new essence trail came into view. She had expected the bright, striking color of a wolf’s trail, but this proved to be something else, a dull gray color lacking any manner of uniqueness from the gray environment around her.

All creatures left essence, but Lume could only easily read the essence of wolves, since it was the only essence that held an effect on her. Trying to interpret that of another creature took time and practice she had never committed to. However, she didn’t need experience to know that these particular tracks belonged to something very large.

Possibly a problem.

She held her ears forward in an alert position, scanning their surroundings as she took her steps slower and more carefully.

Fraser and Wildflower nearly ran into her. “What is it?” Wildflower asked. “Did you find another wolf trail?” Fraser piped in optimistically.

Lume didn’t answer as she stalked further. A new, stinging scent wafted into her nose, one that she had come to associate with mountain lions.

Definitely a problem.

“Don’t move,” she murmured to the others. Wildflower seemed to have smelled the cougar as well and was holding still without question. Fraser didn’t seem to notice it yet. “What—“

The low rumble of a feline growl cut him off from just ahead. Two amber eyes glinted from the bushes in their path.

“Should we run?” Wildflower whispered.

“No point. It’s seen us now, and it’s faster.” Lume narrowed her eyes, holding the cat’s gaze. “It’d catch and kill at least one of you.” She was still in a blue phase. She wasn’t built for offensive combat, but she could certainly stand her ground against the threat.

“Can’t you fight it? Do that thing you did with Harrier and Boa and make it attack … itself or something?” Fraser’s previous fear of Lume’s dangerous influence seemed to fade away with the threat of the cougar.

Lume shook her head slowly. “I can’t,” she said simply.

There was silence for a moment. “Right, you’ve got to turn red to do that, don’t you? Well … turn red then?”

“It doesn’t work like that,” Lume grumbled, turning her head slightly to give Fraser a side-eye.

She immediately realized her mistake as movement out of the corner of her eye jerked her head back to the bushes. The eyes were gone, and had she been looking she might have seen what direction the mountain lion went in.

The trees rustled in all directions around them, seemingly aiding the cougar’s stealth and mocking the wolves. “Back away from the bushes,”

Wildflower whispered. No sooner had she said the words than the big cat leapt out of the foliage from their right, digging its claws straight into Lume’s side.

~CL1